The Old Soldiers Monument in central Dell Rapids could soon have a new location.

The 105-year-old Civil War memorial at the southeast corner of 7th Street and Orleans Avenue sustained damage when a tree branch fell on it during a storm in mid October. The copper and bronze Color Bearer that sits atop the granite and marble base snapped, and is now being housed inside of the Dell Rapids School District’s old elementary school.

Local veterans and some others with an interest in the memorial want to use the mishap as an opportunity to relocate the statue and it’s base to the Veterans Park east of Rocky Run Car Wash.

“At the present time the thought was there,” said Tom Reecy, an Army veteran who saw combat in the Vietnam War. “It should be in the location where the veterans park is. That’s our thought.”

Reecy said a committee with representation from the City, school, historical society, Legion and other vested parties is being organized to formally choose a location.

But deciding where to put it might not be a cut and dry conversation.

Though it will most likely be the city council deciding the City’s stance on the issue, city administrator Justin Weiland holds the opinion that the statue should remain at the corner of 7th Street and Orleans.
“My personal opinion is this thing needs to stay where it is. It’s historically where it was placed,” he said. “It needs to be preserved for the history of the community.”

A third school of thought is to move the Civil War memorial to the cemetery, Reecy said.

The Grand Army of the Republic, the group of Civil War veterans, and it’s auxiliary raised the $550 needed for the monument in 1908. Those folks had intended to place the memorial in the cemetery.

But as its erection approached, plans were altered because the cemetery was thought to be too far out of town.